Hi folks thanks for the responses.
chewitt interesting, not being a developer I know nothing of the challenges you folks face in developing a cross distro tool I hope you folks find a satisfactory solution down the road.
DD is something I'm familiar with, so I'll look into that.
MatteN honestly I hadn't considered Etcher, don't I feel a fool....
I've used it in the past, but had forgot about it since 'discovering' Ventoy which handles all the isos / imgs that I've deployed with it to date.
I'll be sure to test it as with the DD option mentioned above.
herrmeier thanks for the suggestion but not applicable in my situation as I retask older PC HW for my HTPC builds.
Perhaps when there comes a time I no longer have HW available to retask and I look to a PI based (or similar) Kodi / Libreelec install.
Thanks to all for the ideas.
In the meantime, I've now got a perfectly functioning refurbished Kodi/Libreelec based HTPC, which I've now customised to my preferences.
Bonus: much better Audio quality as the mainboard used has much better onboard sound than the previous positively ancient board.
My thanks once again to the Libreelec team for making a lean and mean Kodi solution.
Cheers.